If those 20 pieces of planned DLC for Modern Warfare 3 weren’t enough for you, perhaps four additional bits will do the trick. Activision is sharing the four-piece bonus with Elite subscribers throughout the coming months, but isn’t saying exactly what the content will be. All we know is that it’ll be interspersed throughout the planned Elite content “season.”

Elite’s platform ubiquity is increasing as well, with the service’s planned launch on tablets coming in the near future. Nearly 2 million folks have already snagged the app across both iOS and Android — that’s quite a few, considering approximately 7 million folks are Elite users. Activision promises a variety of (specified) updates to Elite’s functionality over the next few months.

With the official release date for the PC and Mac versions of Diablo 3 finally revealed, we still have an unanswered question: What about the console release? Blizzard has made no secret that it’s tinkering with a console version of Diablo 3, doing everything short of officially announcing it.

Rumors about a console port began flying almost immediately after Blizzard officially announced Diablo 3 in the summer of 2008. In an interview with Joystiq following the announcement, Diablo 3 lead designer Jay Wilson stated that Blizzard didn’t have “any plans” to bring the anticipated dungeon crawler to consoles. Only days later, Blizzard VP of Game Design Rob Pardo gave console players hope, saying that a port was “theoretically possible.” A year later, COO Paul Sams fanned the flames yet again, stating that console manufacturers (likely Microsoft and Sony) had made “some pretty compelling arguments” in favor of a port.

Are you a bad guy in Brazil, waiting patiently behind a thin wooden barrier for Max Payne to pop around a corner so you can totally shoot at him? Think again, my friend. He’s probably just gonna shoot you through that wall! Also, why are you reading about games in such a tense situation? Focus!

When Sony’s internal Japan Studio set out to work on Gravity Rush (Gravity Daze in Japan), the game was positioned as a PlayStation 3 title. According to an interview with the US PlayStation Blog, the team “came across PS Vita along the way” and realized it was “perfect for the game.”

That’s not the weird part, though. The game’s primary influence is cited as Realtime Worlds’ 2007 Xbox 360 game, Crackdown. “I really like the aspect of unlocking skills and becoming more powerful, and achieving a higher level of freedom as you become more powerful,” one team member said. “I enjoyed moving in that game.” Given that Gravity Rush is an open world game in a third-person view with an upgradable character, the comparison makes sense. Both games feature unrealistic art styles accentuating the fantastical gameplay, making their crossover even clearer.

While Gravity Daze has been out for a bit in Japan, Gravity Rush won’t float to US shores for another few months.

Activision is bringing Transformers Prime games to Nintendo platforms later this year, based on the kids’ TV series of the same name. Transformers Prime is being developed by Now Production for the 3DS and Wii.

Described as a “brawler” with “diverse driving sequences,” Transformers Prime will allow players to take control of Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Arcee, Ratchet and Bulkhead. Check out the debut trailer above.

It’s the Virtual Consoliest day of 2012! Between the Wii and 3DS, there are four new Virtual Console games you can buy today. On 3DS, of course, that means Game Gear support has arrived. On Wii, it means Samurai Shodown IV, originally for Neo Geo.

There’s also some free entertainment to be found on the 3DS Nintendo Video service, where a 3D Kid Icarus anime is probably being delivered to you over SpotPass right this second.

That Wasteland sequel you’ve been waiting for is about to go into production, as the game’s Kickstarter crested its goal of $900K while we slept last night. The Kickstarter has started to pick up some momentum, it seems, as the total currently sits at just over $967K, with another 32 days to go.

As stated on the project’s site, the goal is actually to raise $1 million, but inXile head Brian Fargo had agreed to put $100K of his own scratch on the line — it’s looking like that won’t be necessary any more. Which isn’t to say there aren’t plans should the team raise even more money. If they reach $1.25 million, the extra dough will go to “making the world bigger, adding more maps, more divergent stories and even more music.”

If the fundraiser reaches $1.5 million, that depth goes further, with, “more adventures to play, more challenges to deal with, and a greater level of complexity to the entire storyline. We’ll add more environments, story elements, and characters to make the rich world come alive even more.” Oh, also, it’ll come to OS X. So, hey, how about we get things to $1.5 million so your buds at Joystiq can play the game on their writing machines? That’d be just capital.

EA’s “play4free” Command and Conquer: Tiberium Alliances will roll out into open beta today, following the game’s closed beta period which began late last year. Developed by Phenomic, the browser- and mobile-based strategy MMO can be accessed today at the official site.

Updates planned for the title in the coming coming months include cloud saves for play across desktop and mobile.

This is it, folks. It’s officially official: Everyone can finally return to Tristram on May 15 when Diablo 3 finally, finally launches. Interested dungeon crawlers can pre-purchase the game from Battle.net right now in order to “be ready to play the minute the servers go live.”

Blizzard also took a moment to remind everyone that you can still snag a free copy of Diablo 3 by signing up for a World of Warcraft annual pass. The deal expires on May 1. If you’re looking for something a touch more physical, you’ll be able to nab the retail collector’s edition, which includes lots of extra goodies, for $99.99.

Business sucks, alright? It’s cold and rigid and occasionally unfair. Such is the case with Obsidian’s Fallout: New Vegas contract with Bethesda, wherein the developer only received royalties if the game matched or exceeded an 85 rating on Metacritic. Leaving aside the fact that Metacritic is a woefully unbalanced aggregation of review scores from both vetted and unvetted publications, agreements like this can leave indie studios — like Obsidian — in the lurch should that Metacritic score just barely miss the mark.

Unfortunately for Obsidian, Fallout: New Vegascurrently has a Metacritic average of 84, a single point below the average that would’ve earned the company royalties on its product. “[Fallout: New Vegas] was a straight payment, no royalties, only a bonus if we got an 85+ on Metacritic, which we didn’t,” Obsidian creative director and co-owner Chris Avellone told one Twitter user.

The Metacritic news comes just one day after we reported layoffs at the California-based developer — layoffs that were said to be the result of a canceled next-gen project (codenamed “North Carolina”) for an unnamed console. New Vegas lead producer Jason Fader’s Facebook profile reflects the recent layoffs, also outing himself as former lead producer on the North Carolina project. His credentials also list an unnamed project known as “Vermont,” but that could be Obsidian’s upcoming South Park RPG (we’ve reached out for clarification).

Additionally, Kotaku reports that the North Carolina project was to be published by Microsoft, and was intended for the still unannounced Xbox 360 successor console. Our tipster tells us that the North Carolina project was “desperately needed” for the studio’s continued survival, which matches reports that Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart “choked up” while addressing his employees about the canned project.